Buddhism and the West: the growth of western interest in Buddhist ideas

Résumé du document

Buddhism is not only a religion. This spiritual tradition is also a philosophy, a system of ethics and practices as an orientation on the road of life based on the teachings of the Buddha.

According to Pew Forum on religion and public life research in 2010, Buddhism is a world religion. Indeed, 7% of the world population is Buddhist, and 90% of them live in Asia. That is, 10% of them live in other regions, particularly in the West due to immigration but also because of religious conversion.

As contrasted with the Orient or the East, Western Society has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity in Europe. Moreover, this part of the world has been influenced by the Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Age of Enlightenment, the expansive colonialism of the 15th-20th centuries and more recently Industrial Revolution before the implementation of capitalism, materialism, rationalism and individualism in its society. As well as having a geographic meaning including Europe and its former European colonies like America, Russian Northern Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the West has thus a cultural and historic definition. At first sight, this part of the world has nothing in common with Asia and its Buddhist tradition.

Extraits

[...] To illustrate this preponderance, the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader, is a very popular figure in the West and has officially met numerous politician leaders in the West, particularly Presidents of America. However, the real Western Buddhism was mainly introduced in the West by Sangharakshita, a British Theravadin Bhikkhus who founded in 1967 the Triratna Buddhist Community, which became in 2010 the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order[33]. Worldwide, it has more than 100 groups affiliated in North America, Australasia and Europe, which makes it one of the largest Buddhist movement in the UK. [...]

[...] Kalupahana, (2001) Buddhist Thought and Ritual. Motilal Banarsidass. [6]Tavivat Puntarigvivat, (2003). Thai Buddhist Social Theory. Bangkok, Thailand : Institute of Research and Development The World Buddhist University (p35 about the biography of the Buddha written by Prince Vajirayana-Varorasa) [7]Sangharakshita. (1992). Buddhism and the West The Integration of Buddhism into Western Society. Windhorse Publications [8]Stephen Batchelor, (1994). The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. Parallax Press. [9]Stephen Batchelor, (1994). [...]

[...] [16]Weber, Max (1946). "Science as Vocation,", tr. and ed. by H. H. Gerth, and C. Wright Mills. New York: Free press. [17]Eugène Burnouf. (1844) Introduction à l'histoire du bouddhisme indien, Volume pages [18]At Collège de France in 1833 [19]Stephen Batchelor, (1994). The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. [...]

[...] 2010-02-28. Retrieved 2010- 05-01 [37]http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2010/08/18/the-eat-pray- love-industry/ [38]http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=eatpraylove.htm [39]Sangharakshita. (1992). Buddhism and the West The Integration of Buddhism into Western Society. Windhorse Publications [40]Stephen Batchelor, in Le bouddhisme en Belgique, Actes des premiers États-Généraux de l'Union Bouddhique Belge, Kunchab+ pp. 9-14 [41]Stephen Batchelor, in Le bouddhisme en Belgique, Actes des premiers États-Généraux de l'Union Bouddhique Belge, Kunchab+ pp. 9-14 [42]Sangharakshita. (1992). Buddhism and the West The Integration of Buddhism into Western Society. Windhorse Publications [43]Sangharakshita. (1992). [...]

[...] Moreover, among expansiveness, ruthlessness, passion for science and conviction in one's own superiority, colonialism contained also the readiness to discover another way of thinking, including Buddhism for British in India or French in Indochina. In this favorable context, “Orientalism”, the system of knowledge about the Orient in Western consciousness, were more rigorous and helped to define Buddhism. Thus, Eugene Burnouf, who had studied Sanskrit and Pali, was the first to produce scientific knowledge of European concept of Buddhism in The West[17]. He wanted that Western people did “not close our eyes to the most brilliant light that may have come from the Orient”[18]. [...]